The New York Mets lost Mauricio in Saturday night's game, and they've signed Vidal Brujan to replace him.
The New York Mets were already down a shortstop when Ronny Mauricio took over the position, but now the Mets have lost Mauricio for 6-8 weeks after he fractured his left thumb sliding into first on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Angels.
The play happened in the seventh inning of the Mets 4-3 loss on Saturday night when Mauricio hit a chopper to Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel. Pitcher Reid Detmers was late covering, so the play turned into a race for the bag, and both players ended up sliding.
Mauricio sustained the injury, and yesterday the Mets officially placed him on the IL. It’s a tough break for a once-promising prospect who has struggled to stay healthy, and Mauricio has shown flashes on and off, including the brief period when he replaced the Mets regular shortstop, Francisco Lindor.
"It’s tough, obviously,” manager Carlos Mendoza said in an article written by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. “You lose your everyday shortstop and the guy that comes up that is getting the everyday opportunity here now is hurt. Somebody else is going to have an opportunity.”
The next man up could be Vidal Brujan, who had his contract selected by the Mets ahead of Sunday’s 5-1 win over the Angels. The Mets also designated Eric Wagaman just days after he was signed to clear a roster spot for Brujan, with the move reported by Charlie Wright of MLBTradeRumors.com
Brujan’s path to get to the Mets has been that of a typical journeyman backup infielder. He was also DFA’d by the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves during the offseason, and he suffered the same fate with the Mets as Brujan fell short of landing a roster spot.
Brujan made it through waivers, and he’s played in 24 games at Syracuse. Brujan is a good-field, no-hit shortstop whose slash line at Syracuse was .241 /.304/.313, so the Mets shouldn’t expect much from him offensively, but he does bring both speed and range to the table.
The Mets are still figuring out their shortstop situation going forward, but the tentative plan is to have Brujan split time with Bo Bichette, who was signed to play third base in the offseason but shifted over after Lindor got hurt. Bichette is considered serviceable at short for a brief stretch, but the Toronto Blue Jays moved him over to second base because of his subpar defensive metrics.